


Community Birthday Party

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: Gen, I'm not listing them all - Freeform, basically half the sso tumblr community is there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-20
Updated: 2017-11-20
Packaged: 2019-02-04 17:51:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12776268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: Reed throws a big birthday party for Holly. Birthday fic for holly-silverwatcher over on tumblr.





	Community Birthday Party

Holly was more than a little surprised when she opened her mailbox to find an invitation inside. She never got those, she was never invited to anything that the cool kids did, always left out instead. But this was definitely an invitation, and definitely addressed to her. It was even in an enevelope sealed with a wax stamp, into which the image of a girl on horseback had been pressed. It was probably supposed to represent Aideen.

After marvelling at the mere presence of the invitation, Holly hooked her finger under the envelope flap and tore it open. Still sitting on her horse, which had decided to graze for the time being, Holly fished the contents out of the envelope and broke into a grin.

“Dear Holly,” the delicate piece of paper read in a flowing, calligraphic script that she could still read, “you are cordially invited to a party held in your honour. Am I correct in guessing that today is your birthday? :D If so, happy birthday!  
We will meet in Fort Pinta outside the disco at 5:00pm, I’ve managed to convince the security guard and James to put the disco on tonight despite it being a Monday (though Willow helped a lot with that, she managed to convince her boyfriend that it would be a good idea, hehe~)  
See you at five, my dear~  
-Reed”.

Holly had to chuckle at how Reed had used an actual emote in her wonderfully-written letter. That was so her. She’d even signed ‘Gwendolyn Deerwood’ down the bottom in a flourish of ink.

“Well, buddy, looks like we’re going out tonight,” said Holly, giving her horse a pat and still grinning from ear to ear. Her dreams were finally coming true, there was going to be a party that everyone was invited to. At least, she hoped it was everyone. Reed was hosting, so it would probably be everyone.

That afternoon, Holly got dressed in her best clothes and headed out on her Hanoverian. She loved the way it rode, the way it stretched out its long legs. It looked much better than it had in the pictures and videos that had circulated before it had arrived on Jorvik. She rode at a trot until she reached the disco, and there she stopped. Not because she was ready to dismount, but because there were so many people there. Her mouth dropped open in a gasp, and she had to suppress a squeal of excitement as she saw just who was milling about.

“Surprise!” Reed cried when she saw Holly, and Holly gave a laugh of delight and somehow managed to dismount while everyone else was cheering for her arrival. She grinned as she looked around, cheeks flaming at how many people there were.

There was Zelda, standing over near the little café tables with a blue-haired man who must be Jack and a white-haired girl in a chicken mask. A brunette girl wearing glasses sat with them, one who Holly hadn’t seen around very much. Close to the white-haired girl was another girl with short blond hair, and she seemed to be quite close with her friend.

“Happy birthday, Holly,” said Reed, giving the birthday girl a hug.

“Thanks, Reed,” said Holly, grinning as she returned the hug. “Wow, you really do attract everyone, don’t you?”

“Well, the other meet-ups are more casual,” said Reed. “But when I host a meetup, everyone knows it’s going to be a great time.” She grinned, and Holly laughed.

“You’re not wrong there,” said Holly. She could see Athena, Ali, Astrid Starflight, Shadow, Lea, Jacky, Zeal, Race, and several other people all milling about in the large crowd.

“Some people are missing, but they’re a little too old for this new crowd,” said Reed with a laugh. “I miss them, though. One day, I’ll manage to convince them to come to a meetup again. One day.”

“Well, this is already impressive enough,” said Holly. “You got the whole community together.”

“Well, I didn’t make the community address book for nothing,” said Reed, glowing with pride. “I pride myself on my ability to bring people together.”

“It’s a wonderful ability,” said Holly, and grinned as she walked into the crowd to meet some new friends.

After several hours of mingling, in which Holly met a lot of the new people who’d come into the community (though some were shy and only timidly exchanged phone numbers before scurrying back to their corners), it came time to eat the cake. Holly hadn’t been able to stop grinning since she’d gotten here.

The cake looked beautiful, a chocolate layer cake frosted with ‘Happy Birthday Holly’ written onto the top in a font that looked very much like Reed’s handwriting in the letter.

“Wow, who made this?” asked Holly after the obligatory ‘happy birthday’ had been endured.

“It was kind of a group effort,” said Reed, waving the knife around as she talked. “Louisa and Ankle baked it, Emily helped decorate it, and I wrote on it.”

“Aww, you guys banded together to make my cake?” asked Holly, blushing now.

“It’s amazing what the community can accomplish when they put their heads together,” said Reed, more than a touch of pride in her voice. “Even if it’s just something small like throwing one heck of a birthday bash.”

“I wouldn’t exactly call this small,” said Zeal, who stood next to Reed helping to pass out pieces of cake to the hungry guests. The disco had started about an hour after Holly had arrived, so everyone had danced up an appetite. Even James had danced, having been pulled onto the dancefloor by his girlfriend Willow. He was, of course, lined up to receive cake.

“You know what I mean,” said Reed with a laugh as she began the task of cutting cake and handing it out to all of the partygoers.

But the best surprise yet was to come after the cake had been eaten and everyone was calming down despite the sugar hit. A figure that appeared to be glowing bright pink made his way through the crowd and put his hands on the shoulders of Savvy and another girl who hadn’t been to many meetups before. Both of them squealed with delight, to which the strange man grinned and laughed, pink light spilling from his eyes and mouth.

“Alright, kids, who wants to hear a story?” asked Evergray, and a lot of people gathered around him, including a girl with short, dark blue hair who had joined the party late and hung out mostly with Louisa. Holly sat almost right in front of him, trembling with excitement at being so close to him.

Evergray regaled them with stories long into the night, stories about druids and Soul Riders who had come before. But he did not speak of the great battles. Instead, Evergray spoke of the funnier stories, like the time when he had been convinced that the lunar eclipse would suck the magic from Meteor’s soul, rendering him powerless, and had locked him in a dark room with dark cloths over the windows, or the time when he had first found the little foal Starshine and had taken him to Jorvik Stables. About the times he’d had wandering Pandoria, lost but amazed at everything that he saw there.

And the whole time, Holly stared up at him, in awe at everything that he’d seen and accomplished.

After he’d finally finished speaking, Evergray sat down quite heavily on the edge of the fountain, breathing quite heavily.

“Whoof, forgot how much standing and talking for ages can take it out of you,” said Evergray, and tried to laugh but ended up coughing instead. Holly worried about him, but Evergray gave her a smile that assured her that he was fine. “So, it’s your birthday, huh?”

“Yes,” said Holly, nodding. “Thanks for coming.”

“Happy birthday,” said Evergray, and gave her a hug that was slightly trembly. But Holly was trembling too, so she barely noticed.

“Thanks,” said Holly, grinning at him. “You have some really good stories.”

“After how long I’ve lived, I’d hope that I’d have some good stories,” said Evergray with a smile. He didn’t risk laughing this time. “I’ve had a lot of birthdays.”

“So have I,” said Holly. “Well, probably not as many as you, but this is the best one I’ve ever had.”

“I’m glad,” said Evergray, turning his beaming (literally) smile on her. “You deserve it, I’m sure.”

Holly smiled as she looked out at all of the milling party guests while she sat on the edge of the fountain with Evergray. Everyone was so happy, and at a meetup in her honour. Reed really had outdone herself. And, when Evergray put his arm around her, Holly decided that this was definitely the best birthday party she’d ever had.


End file.
